The Belarusian authorities often emphasise that the country is tolerant to all religions.

Yet, this state-endorsed tolerance is not always straight away translated into practice, particularly with regards to Protestants.

Yesterday I experienced how various Belarusian Christians can gather together and share the common values, beliefs, even when belonging to different denominations.

I attended an open 40th birthday event of Paval Seviaryniec. He is one of the most recognisable faces of the Belarusian opposition, also a former political prisoner, and currently the leader of Belarusian Christian Democracy. The event also served as an occasion to collect donations for the Belarusian Christian information service krynica.info.

Birthday Party with an Ecumenical Flavour

The yesterday event took place in a surprisingly ecumenical spirit, I would say. It started with the prayer ‘Our Father’, present in all Christian confessions.

Paval Siewiaryniec’ guests representing various Christian backgrounds were congratulating him at the “open microphone”, including Uladzimir Niaklajeu, a famous Belarusian poet.

The birthday person and birthday wishes ‘open microphone’

Krynica.info Reports on Christian Affairs in Belarus

The Krynica.info website covers religious news related primarily to Christians in Belarus in Belarusian, Russian and English languages.

‘Christian’ refers to Catholics, Orthodox and various Protestant denominations present, yet ‘publicly invisible’ in the country.

It seems like a truly Christian-inclusive project when considering the fact that Belarusian state media do not report that much on Protestant denominations. Or occasionally they report on chosen denominations, ignoring the existence of others.

Krynica.info is definitely worth being supported. Hopefully, its creators will come up with the idea of how Belarusians (and people from outside) could support it.